Fugitive Smuggler Convicted

Man Fled Urbanna Charges In 1991

NORFOLK — An international marijuana smuggler who was on the lam for six years could spend the rest of his life behind bars, now that he has been convicted on federal drug charges.

Mark Howard Miller, a member of a drug ring that smuggled 60,000 pounds of marijuana into Urbanna, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to import marijuana.

Miller will be sentenced Dec. 22 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. He could receive a prison term ranging from 10 years to life.

Miller, 52, of Pittsburgh, was indicted Nov. 21, 1991, on federal drug trafficking charges along with Jacques G. Panis of Weems in Lancaster County and Robert McNally of Virginia Beach. A fourth man, Raymond Whalen, was charged in a separate indictment.

Panis and McNally were arrested the next day, but Miller fled to Switzerland and Greece. Authorities found him last year in a jail in Greece, and he was extradited to Virginia in August. The thousands of dollars he had deposited in a Hong Kong bank was confiscated by the Royal Hong Kong Police in 1996.

``This case stands for the fact that the federal government is able to indict someone at this level and find them after six years,'' said Robert E. Bradenham II, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case.

Bradenham also praised the U.S. Customs Service for conducting an extensive investigation and gathering evidence for the indictment, and for locating Miller. The U.S. Attorney's Office and customs in Norfolk used diplomatic channels and worked with Greek authorities to bring Miller back to Virginia for trial.

According to federal authorities, Miller was a financier for the ring, which operated in Middlesex County from 1985 to 1989. He also was responsible for organizing the unloading in Urbanna.

The marijuana was transported from Colombia to the French West Indies, where it was transferred onto trawlers and large sailing vessels. Each vessel, carrying about 5,000 pounds of the drug, then set sail for various places along the East Coast.

Twelve of those shipments landed in historic Urbanna at a marina owned by Panis, authorities said. But most of the marijuana, which totaled about $7 million, ended up in New York.

According to authorities, one smuggling venture could generate profits of $2.5 million. The profits then would be split among drug ring members in New York, Virginia, the French West Indies and Colombia.

Panis and McNally were convicted on federal drug charges in 1992. Panis was sentenced to 16 years in prison; McNally, an Air Force veteran who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross in Vietnam, received eight years and one month.

Whalen was acquitted in 1994 on a technicality, although he admitted setting up the marijuana receiving port in Urbanna and running the operation from his home in the resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho.

He did not, however, escape prison. He was indicted that same year in Idaho on money-laundering charges and is serving time in a federal prison.